i just found some cinelli track drops in a bargain bin for $20 and they are 26.4, what are my chances of cramming them into a 26 stem. they look mangled from someone doing it before, so im not too worried about fucking them up any more, im just curious 1. if its gonna go in 2. will the stem clamp actually hold the bar solid when i pull up hard on the drops in a sprint?
or…can someone throw me an equally cheap and mangled 26.4 quill stem???
I just the other day bought a cheap ($15) set of aluminum bullhorns that were measured at 26.00, and i took that on face value as being true. I went home to fit them into an old Nitto dynamic stem labeled at 26.00 and there was just no way one of those measurements was correct, at least 1.5mm off. But, considering it only represented $20 in parts and i would never use the stem for anything else, i used a deadblow hammer to fit the stem over the bump in the bars. it cosmetically scarred the bars pretty bad, and the stem seems to be no worse for wear except for cosmetically… so I’m happy enough. but if you’re really that unconcerned about it, given enough hammering and twisting you can certainly do it.
Edit- same bike shop these bars came from mentioned having a cinelli specific stem, if you were that desperate it would cost about 10 bucks probably…or you could look around locally, I bet old and oddly sized stems like that just pile up in some shops
nm, i got it in. after a minute of twisting i tried prying the face more open with a wrench and they went right in…i couldn’t believe it was that easy.
because i didn’t have any trouble with that i decided to take a link out of my chain…i had it off and i layed it down next to a new chain i had from ages ago and that fucker had stretched like an inch over the whole thing, i though i was seeing things. damn…i gotta change my chain more often, i only put it on at christmas, is that normal?
If you use a 4 bolt open face stem it should be a piece of cake…congrats on making it work with a quill though! I personally had a hell of a time fitting 26.0mm bars into a 25.4 stem. Though that’s a slightly bigger jump.
You should still get a Cinelli stem… it’s just classier that way.
got one you wanna give me…for classiness sake?